Key takeaways from Italia Solare Forum

The Italia Solare Forum this week in Rome highlighted the renewed importance of the large-scale solar segment in Italy and underscored the huge potential of energy communities, given the EU’s recent approval of a dedicated incentive scheme.

Image: pv magazine, Sergio Matalucci

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From pv magazine Italy

The latest Forum Italia Solare event saw a notable increase in participation, with 500 attendees in person and 380 online, compared to 280 in-person attendees and 320 remote participants at the seventh forum last year.

The Italian PV market is poised to grow by an additional 5 GW this year, driven by robust expansion in the large-scale segment. This new capacity could push Italy's cumulative installed PV capacity beyond 30 GW by the end of this year, bringing Italy's trajectory a step closer to Europe's two fastest-growing markets – Germany and Spain

Although the rooftop segment began to show some signs of growth deceleration this year due to the expiration of the so-called Superbonus, it also offered a new direction, with a significant amount of residential and C&I capacity going online. Italia Solare said there were 5.6 GW of storage systems in operation in Italy by the end of September, including 5.4 GW of residential batteries.

During one of the event's sessions, representatives from all of Italy's political parties appeared to share the same views on the future of solar in Italy, with some slight differences between them. However, most of their statements and positions seemed not to reflect the real needs of the sector.

“The new rules are often published without adequate discussion with the associations,” the president of Italia Solare, Paolo Rocco Viscontini, told pv magazine Italy.

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He specifically noted a new draft law on “eligible areas,” which would change the rules for the permitting of large scale renewable energy facilities. “If it comes into force as the current draft would imply, is destined to represent a real brake on the development of photovoltaics,” said Visconti.

Energy communities

The event also included intense discussions about a €5.7 billion ($6.24 billion) scheme for the deployment of energy communities in Italy, which was recently approved by the European Commission.

“In the latest version of the decree, the form of calculation of the incentive has been confirmed. The limitation of the incentive in the case of access to capital contributions has also been confirmed,” said Andrea Brumgnach, vice president of Italia Solare.

According to several experts, Italian utilities will play a role in the development of energy communities. They should assume the risks associated with energy communities and offer standardized solutions, thus leading to a decrease in costs.

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